Macaria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Greek mythology, Macaria was one of the Heracleidae, children of Heracles. She was in Heracleidae, a play by Euripides. She and her brothers and sisters hid from Eursytheus in Athens, ruled by King Demophon. As Eurystheus prepared to attack, an oracle told Demophon that he would win if and only if a noble woman was sacrificed to Persephone. Macaria volunteered for the sacrifice and a spring was named the Macarian spring in her honor.

In the 10th century CE, the Byzantine Greek work "Suda" shows another Macaria as a goddess of a blessed afterlife (which was assured to Orphic mystery initiates after death). This Macaria is the daughter of Hades, and Persephone in some traditions, though there is no mention of her before this time. She then became the divinity of bliss death but wasn't famous.[citation needed]

Languages